Seismic data is acquired to remotely sense subsurface geologic conditions, particularly in connection with the exploration for and production of hydrocarbons, such as oil and natural gas. To gather seismic data in a marine environment, acoustic sources, such as airguns, are used to produce an acoustic signal that is transmitted through the seawater and into the subsurface geologic formations. Changes in acoustic impedance at the sea bottom and between different geologic layers cause a portion of the acoustic energy to be reflected and returned toward the sea surface. These reflected signals are received by acoustic sensors (or seismic receivers) and are processed to create images of the subsurface geology.
Survey data can be collected and processed to produce a representation (e.g., image) of a subsurface structure. In some implementations, survey data includes seismic survey data collected using seismic survey equipment. The seismic survey equipment includes one or more seismic sources that are activated to produce seismic wavefields propagated into the subsurface structure. A part of the seismic wavefields is reflected from the subsurface structure and detected by seismic receivers that are part of the survey equipment.
An issue associated with marine seismic surveying is the presence of undesirable ghost data. Ghost data refer to data in measurement data resulting from reflections from an air-water interface of the marine environment. A seismic wavefield generated by a seismic source is propagated generally downwardly into the subsurface structure. A reflected seismic wavefield (that is in response to the seismic wavefield propagated by the seismic source) propagates generally upwardly toward an arrangement of seismic receivers. In the marine environment, where receivers are generally positioned beneath the water surface, the seismic wavefield reflected from the subsurface structure continues to propagate upward past the receivers towards the air-water interface, where the seismic wavefield is reflected back downwardly.
This reflected, generally downwardly traveling seismic wavefield from the air-water interface is detected by the seismic receivers as ghost data, which appears in measurement data collected by the seismic receivers. The presence of ghost data can result in reduced accuracy when generating a representation of the subsurface structure based on the measurement data.